Pharmaceuticals Procurement
and Supply Management:
The case of Ethiopia
Cambodia, December 4
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, 2014
Presentation outline
 Background
 Updates on National procurement & Supply management
 Priority Areas
 Ways forward
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Country Background
 Ethiopia is located in the Eastern part of
Africa
 Area: 1,104,300 square kilometers
 Total Population: 90 million (CSA projection
for 2014)
 Average size of household: 4.6
 Ethiopia is Decentralized country:
 9 Administrative regional states
 2 City Administrations
Annual Pharmaceutical procurement by Public Supply chain
→ PFSA reached  10 Billion Birr (500 Million USD )
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…Background
• Efforts to strengthen the Supply chain management of Ethiopia
begin with development of Pharmaceuticals Logistics Master Plan
(PLMP) in 2006.
• PFSA was established by proclamation in September 2007 and
mandated to “avail affordable and quality assured pharmaceuticals
sustainably to all public health facilities and ensure their rational
use”.
• As per the reform finalized in 2009, the Pharmaceutical Supply and
Service is considered as one of the eight core processes of Federal
Ministry of Health of Ethiopia
• Since its inception the Agency has followed the Integrated
Pharmaceutical Supply approach starting with rational selection,
consumption based forecasting and pooled procurement and needbased distribution
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 In the past years so many capacity building training and
support were given to health facilities to enhance their
inventory management and quantification efficiency
 For medicines procured by Revolving Drug Fund (RDF),
the health facilities are placing their orders to the near by
PFSA branch offices which were in turn aggregated at
national level for pooled procurement.
 For program items ( ARVs, TB medicines, Anti-malarial
and Family planning commodities), the quantification is
done at National Level with the involvement of all
stakeholders (FMOH, PFSA, RHB, health facilities and
all development partners supporting respective programs)
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Note: Beyond having a
There should be PFSA HUB within 160-300 Km
radius
well organized central
office the agency has
regional presence through
its currently functional
eleven branches and has
been working towards
having more branch offices
 i.e. construction of
warehouses in order to
realize access to all public
health facilities within
160 - 300 km radius.
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Pharmaceuticals
Procurement
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 procurement Directorate of PFSA selects appropriate
procurement method, develop tender document and
announce the tender.
 In most cases ICB and Restricted tenders
 We do procurement through different sources including
GF, PBS/WB, MDG, Government fund and other
development partners fund

PFSA is also procuring sophisticated medical
equipments like MRI, CT scan, Mammography
Machine …
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Bringing different procurement
processes to one
• In Ethiopia development partners are
preferring the government procurement
process due to
– Establishment of the Pharmaceutical Fund
Agency(PFSA)
– Strengthened transparency, accountability
and quality control of PFSA
• Web site, Audit, FMHACA, IPLS , APTS
– Candid dialogue between MOH and Partners
• JFA, Governance structure
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Warehouse at Center and regions
Warehouse at Bahir dar Branch

17 Modern warehouses are under construction → this will increase the
storage capacity from 46,000M3
to 580,000 M3. Will increase
Access to medicines
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17 cold warehouses of
8000 M3 capacity
Cold warehouses are also constructed in all of the 17 hubs
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Distribution
 More than 160 vehicles with
different capacity were
procured and deployed
21 vehicles in 2000 E.C 171 at the end of 2006 E.C
Note: The Ministry is working
to further strengthen the
storage and distribution
capacity of the Agency
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 17 Refrigerated trucks were procured and deployed to strengthen
EPI logistics and pharmaceuticals requiring cold chain.


Annual distribution capacity reached 10.5 Billion Birr by the
End of 2006 EBY (2013/2014G.C),
Plan for 2007 EBY is 12.2 Billion Birr (≈ 600 Million USD) →
more than 17% fold when compared to 2000 BY
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Challenges
 Poor demand forecasting and inventory management and logistics
data from end users and other levels of the supply chain.
 Information linkage
 Delay in procurement process (some times)
 Limited suppler pool for some products
 Limited local capacity to manufacture essential medicines →
dependency in global market.
 Price fluctuation in international market
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Way Forward
 We will strengthen quantification and inventory management at all
levels & procurement efficiency at national level
 We need to strengthen Logistics Management Information System:
towards having one and efficient system of information management
 We will build strategic partnership with potential suppliers and
strengthen local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity
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Thank You
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